But the court’s decision was anything but a unanimous deal; in fact, it was a narrow 4-3 ruling that asserted Franklin should not receive a new sentence based on the 2010 case Graham v. Florida that ruled life sentences for juveniles who commit nonhomicide crimes must be accompanied by “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation” before the sentence’s end.

Franklin was sentenced to three concurrent 1,000-year sentences for the heinous assaults. All three victims testified the suspect violently attacked then abducted them and drove them to a secluded area where he brutally battered, raped and robbed them “while evidencing an extraordinary cruelty and a perverse enjoyment of the suffering he was inflicting.”

One of the victims’ physicians testified that a sexual assault battery exam showed the worst injuries he had ever observed.